Some of the projects that people are denouncing *are maturing* that technology. Just because the layperson doesn't see that level of detail in mass-market media and PR material aimed at that layperson in no way means it's not happening.
No, I don't believe "we" are.
I hope so! AvGas is an ever more scarce resource, and turbine power is out of the reach for many. Would be great to be alive through this kind of revolution in powered flight
Extrapolation is a trap. In the earlier days of internal combustion engines, brake specific fuel consumption rose rapidly, then the gains leveled off, and now a gain of a point or two is a big deal. Aircraft speeds similarly rose rapidly, especially during WW2, but if we extrapolated that to now, we should be flying Mach 3 Cessnas. Or something. Olympic athletes now win medals based on finishing fractions of a second ahead of the competition. Tiny gains.
I drive a Solectria Force. It's a great little car. It only let me down one time, when the 12 volt power converter went bad. I found a plug-in replacement for less than $150 including shipping and it's been trouble free ever since.
Of course I do, but I try to reserve judgement of their technical progress until I know more technical details. While most of the external focus is on something like "that configuration looks goofy" or "just another quad/octo/pick-a-number copter," or "this mission isn't believable" the observers are missing the underlying technology. I think a lot of progress in motor and motor controller design, contingency management, cert bases, composites; and yes, even battery chemistry, flight-critical software, and CONOPS (three favorite targets here) has been made by some of these 'startup' level projects. Some efforts have been comical, others mind-blowing (at least to me), regardless of the success of the platform.
A quick YouTube search will bring up plenty of electric flying machines. Some are homemade ultralight, some are converted 2 seaters, some are factory planes and factory projects. Electric aviation is coming but just like the bulk of the renewable energy industry, storage is the issue. Motors, chargers, motor controllers, inverters, vehicle designs, all are supper efficient these days, it's just hard to store enough electrons.
Electric aviation is here and about to go mainstream albeit on a smaller scale. We were discussing this in a different thread but thought this reference may be better here. There are several entities globally that about to start commercial pax ops once the global aviation regulatory authorities out which direction to take. With others looking at certification by 2025. While this 1st step isn't at the level some people want to see, its about to start and I don't think it will go away any time soon especially when you see market valuations of billions by 2030 being used in prospectus reports. There's a lot of money being spent right now to make this smaller version of electric aviation work. Just to keep in mind, the Wright Flyer didn't carry pax or offer frequent flyer miles for a spell either.
What did anyone need a battery for in 1799? They didn't even have a good theory for electrochemistry until much later, so they didn't have any framework for developing batteries. They were used for telegraphs in the 1800's. People generally didn't need batteries until the late 1800s when zinc-carbon batteries allowed flashlights to be useful (somewhat). Until recently, there just wasn't much R&D in batteries because the lead-acid battery from 1859, carbon-zinc from 1896, NiCAD battery from ~1900, alkaline in 1959, NiMH in the 1980's, and LiIon in ~1970 worked perfectly well. R&D investment comes when someone sees a profit.
Someone electrified a Xenos: https://www.kitplanes.com/turned-on-we-fly-an-electric-xenos/
And it's not just ideas that have to wait. Sometimes long existing technologies need to wait for the right time to make it into new production equipment. For example, the 1st commercial fly-by-wire helicopter will hopefully be certified this year. And how long has FBW been used in commercial aircraft? Unfortunately even old technologies need to be reproven as new uses tend to bring out new issues. And the Bell 525 or AW 609 were no different in the FBW and control law realm which unfortunately cost 4 highly experienced test pilots their lives. One of whom I knew. But to see how that old and new stuff is tweaked behind the scenes to make something completely different can be rather interesting. Especially when you look at a V22 zip by which the concept has been flying for 70 years or these current electric aircraft which have been flying in some form for 50 years.
Yup. He invented (I think) the assembly line. And he had a few other tricks to keep the costs down. For instance, he had other manufacturers make certain parts, and he had not only the specifications for those parts but the specifications for the boards for the crates they were to be shipped in. Certain dimensions, drilled in very specific places unrelated to the crate's function, and so on. Those manufacturers thought he was neurotic or something, until they visited the factory and found those boards used as the floorboards in the cars. All pre-cut and predrilled and everything.
I appreciate your optimism. Society needs more of that. Despite what many people think of Musk he's kept people interested in space travel and pushing the envelope with tech. I invite you to check out the Owen Magnetic, it's a hybrid electric car from 1915, it's a neat little car.. and shows that people have been interested in EV tech since the barbershop crowd of 1925:
Maybe not in 1799, but people have had an interest in electric things for a long time (thanks Ben Franklin!).. It inherently holds this mythical ethos to it that captivates (or scares) people.. it has possibilities. But as noted above, I think are going to need to physically run out of fossil fuels or see some serious breakthrough wonder. Either that adapt to a world in which mass people movers traveling near the speed of sound transporting hundreds of people thousands of miles across oceans becomes a thing of the past. Fossil fuel (at least as we know it) will eventually run out
I'd be interested in seeing how they controlled the motor speed. Back then they had nothing like transistors or pulse width modulation or MOSFETs or anything else. Just huge resistors that got hot, wasting power, and switches.
They used a mechanical motor controller. It was a wooden drum that rotated and was wrapped in copper plates with copper "fingers" that would alternate the batteries output between parallel and series depending on what gear was selected. I believe there were also resisters used as well to regulate the output. The cars I saw had 2 levers, one for steering and one for gear selection. All in all for the early 1900s it was quite advanced if you asked me. There are a number of sites on the internet that have pics of the motor controllers and other info. Once I get home I'll post a few if you can't find any.
Did somebody mention charging stations?Here are a couple links that show pics of the motor controllers for the Baker and Detroit Electric.
Batteries really weren't used for very much until the early 1900's. It wasn't until people used laptops and cell phones that there was much incentive to improve batteries. Most of the battery improvements have been very recent. Some interesting things are just getting scaled up now.
Why don't I understand that sentence?
Great! You can fly one hour out of every 25.
Or both. But the good news is that things are headed in that direction. And the future belongs to those that are prepared.
I wonder how many people gave a thousand good reasons why the Manhattan project would never work.
